Wheatland Music Festival


The Wheatland Music Festival is a music and arts festival organized by the Wheatland Music Organization, a non-profit organization specializing in the preservation and presentation of traditional arts and music. Community outreach services include programming for Senior facilities and schools across mid-Michigan, year-round instrument lessons, scholarship programs, Jamborees, Traditional Dances, and Wheatscouts - a free program educating children through music, dance, storytelling, crafts and nature. Each year, the organization holds its annual Traditional Arts Weekend the weekend of Memorial Day, and its annual festival during the second weekend in September in the unincorporated community of Remus in the state of Michigan, in the United States. The first Wheatland Music Festival was held August 24, 1974.

History

In the early 1970s a small group of Mt. Pleasant Food Co-Op members and local musicians were staging free concerts and benefits around the Big Rapids and Mt. Pleasant, MI areas. Common sites were city parks and public halls. Proceeds enabled the food co-op to pay rent and utilities. Meanwhile, founders of the Wheatland Music Organization were organizing about two concerts a month during the summer.
The First Wheatland Bluegrass Festival was held as a benefit for the Mt. Pleasant Food Co-Op, August 24, 1974. It was a one-day event held on the Rhode family farm, located four miles east of Remus on M-20. June Rhodes' utility room became festival headquarters, her backyard was the backstage area, and her sister-in-law's yard across the road was the parking lot. The flatbed trailers were in place along with the first-aid tent, a sound system, and a hotdog stand.
Several hundred people attended the First Wheatland Festival. Perhaps the single most important attendee was the local postmaster. Before the first festival was even over he had already offered the use of his farm for the next year. The one improvement he could offer was a hayfield instead of corn stubble and dirt. All in all he knew just what the festival idea needed.
Who was that postmaster? And why would he want hundreds of strangers sleeping across his 160-acre backyard? What would his wife have to say about this? Mark and Gladys Wernette were contemplating taking a big step towards an uncertain future. But like their parents, Mecosta County's Alsatian pioneers, Mark and Gladys were committed to what they thought was their civic responsibility and offered to lend a hand.
By 1975 Wheatland was born. Elections were held and the board of directors was established. Many of the first directors are still active in the organization. This can be attributed to their faith in each other, their commitment to community service, and passion for preserving and presenting traditional music and arts.
With the 47th annual festival being deferred to 2021, officials blamed the COVID-19 pandemic as the result of 2020's cancellation.

Timeline

1970s

1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983 Land purchase: WMO puts $100 down on Gunnison Property
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1998
2001
"2014" whoo-hoo!!
40th. Anniversary Wheatland music festival. "Carry it on" dance project. To hopefully another 40 years.

Performers by year

2010s

2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979
1978
1977
1976
1975
1974